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Having complex character animations with lip-sync dialogues preprogrammed is also helpful for those who don’t have any 3D modeling or animation experience. I can direct the animated characters rather than spending hours doing the actual animation. I can give directions like ”Give me anger”, “Give me joy”, “Give me fear” then press record and watch my animation come together.

Timeline tweaks can take a bit of brain power

Controlling the cameras and fussing about with the timeline are the only elements of this software that made me pause for thought and stretch my neural pathways. Yet I'm sure that any teenager will hit the ground running when tackling this. Indeed, the very simple and intuitive interfaces make even these harder bits a breeze.

Being able to record my own dialogue was an added bonus – time to try out the squirrel voice setting on my Logitech G930 headset.

Results can be saved or exported to on-line services
Click for animation clip

Muvizu has the facility to import file types from other programs so I could knock up an a few jpeg backgrounds and textures in Photoshop to really personalize my animation. There is an easy option though, as the Muvizu website is a treasure trove of add ons and ideas. I must admit I just couldn't resist a free flying saucer or two.

Verdict

Having spent some time with it, I am not sure that Muvizu is aimed at the over thirties. However, as an educator, I can see this being really fun as a classroom tool or even for getting students to do reviews or presentations. But as I teach in a room full of iMacs, I do hope Digimania will release a Mac version soon, so I won’t have to resort to running it on Boot Camp all the time. ®